Four-day workweeks may be in the future for Connecticut employees

Published
8:00 pm EDT, Tuesday, July 8, 2008

NORWALK

By STEVE KOBAK

Hour Staff Writer

As New Canaan officials consider a four-day workweek for municipal employees, other Fairfield County officials said a shortened workweek option is not forseeable in the near future, but the towns are considering alternate ways to conserve energy.

Some municipalities in Fairfield County are studying the logic behind shifting to four-day workweek, but other officials said they are reluctant to shut down services for one day each week. However, city and town officials both said they are making other adjustments to conserve energy.

Under New Canaan's four-day workweek proposal, town hall hours would be extended on Monday through Thursday and the facility would be shut down Friday through Sunday. The shortened workweek proposal will be discussed by the New Canaan Board of Selectmen on July 22, according to Human Resources Director Cheryl Jones.

Norwalk will not consider such a measure as cutting city services is not an option, according to Mayor Richard A. Moccia. Shortening the workweek by one day would prevent people from receiving certain city services, such as waste disposal and access to the tax assessor, Moccia noted.

"It's just not feasible here in Norwalk for various reasons," he said. "We're a city, and we have to keep City Hall open five-days-a-week."

From a work force perspective, the city would be at a disadvantage service-wise and would undermine contracts with labor unions if it shifted to a four-day workweek, Moccia said. Many municipal employees would be unable to work from home as their jobs entail interaction with the public, Moccia said.

The city has been taking other steps towards being more energy efficient, Moccia said. Municipal workers have been trying to reduce fuel usage by combining chores, which leads to shorter car trips, Moccia said. The city has also been trying to get the best gas mileage out of the vehicles in its fleet by keeping up on the vehicles' maintenance.

Norwalk has been working to reduce the energy usage at City Hall by curtailing the use of larger rooms in the building and encouraging all employees to watch electricity usage, according to Moccia.

"We just keep building management monitoring our usage here," he said. "We have energy-efficient lighting. My predecessor Alex (Knopp) put in some energy-saving items in City Hall, and we continue to build on those."

Stamford Mayor Dannel P. Malloy said the city is conducting an analysis on the four-day workweek, but the schedule shift is not feasible for workers in all city departments.

"We have done and will continue to do an analysis," he said. "For most departments, it just doesn't make sense."

Malloy said while the city may gravitate towards a four-day week for some employees, the decision to switch to a four-day workweek would not impact the hours of operation for city services.

"In essence, what you are doing is taking a seven-day operation and pretending it's a five-day operation and then taking it a step further and pretending that they would be four-day operations," he said. "You need police. You need fire. You need to plow snow. You need to cut grass."

Stamford has been looking for more practical ways to conserve energy, Malloy said. The city has been keeping up on the maintenance on the cars in its fleet to improve fuel efficiency, Malloy said. Within five years, the city's goal is to replace 20 percent of its fleet with hybrid vehicles or high fuel-efficiency vehicles, according to Malloy.

"We are making fleet changes," he said. "We're monitoring fuel that much more closely. We're turning temperatures up wherever we can. That kind of stuff."

Weston is also mulling a four-day workweek, but the town may not adopt this strategy until next year, according to First Selectman Woody Bliss. The town has to do further studies before making such a change to the workweek, Bliss said.

"I suspect we're not going to do anything with it this year, only because there's not enough time to research and do it right," he said.

Bliss said Weston is monitoring the success of other towns, like Redding, that are trying out four-day workweeks.

In order to shift to a four-day workweek, the town would have to sort out matters like vacation time and work out agreements with unionized departments like the Weston Police Department, Bliss said.

"There's a series of questions that I don't yet have answers to," he said. "I just don't know, in the end, how it is going to work out."

Meanwhile, the town has taken steps towards reducing its carbon footprint and is looking at furthering its energy independence, Bliss said. Weston added two hybrid vehicles to its fleet earlier this year. The town also has an alternative energy committee that is looking at how town properties can reduce energy dependence.

On a legislative level, state Sen. Bob Duff, D-25, majority whip, said while the four-day workweek has not been formally discussed by legislators, the idea has been "kicked around."

Duff, who is vice chairman of the Energy and Technology Committee, said certain kinks have to be smoothed out before the legislature considers a four-day workweek policy.

For instance, the shortened workweek's impact on state services would have to be determined, Duff said.

"There's always certain functions that have to be done seven-days-a-week instead of four-days-a-week," he said. "It's something that probably could be done. It just has to be worked out."